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THE PROFESSOR'S 





COR 

NEW METHOD 
OF SAYING THE POTATO CROP 

FROM THE 

Bliglit, the Scab and the Rot. 

Invented by the/universal Farmer, 
JOHN FLATTEN, 

OF FORT I10>VAUD, WIS. 



Copyrighted Oct. 1, 1890. All rights reserfed 



L. 



H. H. Zahn a Co., Printers, 

Milwaukee, Wis. 

1891. 




6^||/rS)»^5^g^ 



THE PROFESSOR^S 

CLIMATIC SECRETS, 



OR 



New Method of Saving the Potato Crop 



Blijlit, the Scab and the Rot. 



Invented by the Universal Farmer, 

. John P l a t 

OF Fort HowA^'^^pYRlGHr ^'^■ 






Copyrighted Oct. 1, 1890. All rights reserved. 



H. H. Zahn it Co., Printers. 

Milwaukee, Wis. 

1891. 



1.— Introductory. 



For about' two generations, or since 1840, millions 
of heads are at work trying to solve the question : How 
to save the potato crop from the so-called diseases, the 
blight, the scab, and the rot. In vain! Man seeks afar, 
for that which lies at home. 

We call it the potato disease; — that is not correct — 
not true. The blighting of the potatoes is no more a 
potato disease than the sunstroke or drowning are 
human diseases. True, the sunstroke kills the man, so 
it does the potato. So does drowning kill the man as 
well as the potato, but the water in which the man 
drowns is no human "disease", neither is the water in 
which the potato drowns — rots — a potato disease. And 
the potato scab is no more a potato disease, than burning 
onesself is a human disease. True, burning leaves a 
scar, and sometimes kills, just so the scab on the potato 
sometimes kills the potato, but all — the blight, the 
scab, and the rot, all come from without, from Climatic 
Influences. The only disease of the potato itself, is the 
hollow, and that is rarely very bad. But you see, 
reader, man may receive a sunstroke, be drowned or 
even burned without being sick. So also may potatoes 
get suns truck (blighted), burned (scabby), drowned 



(rotten) from climatic influences without any disease 
whatsoever* Among all the plants we cultivate none 
is as tender as the potato ; it can neither endure 
great heat or severe cold. In its native home in the 
mountain gulches of Central America, from where they 
came to us, and where they are still growing wild, the 
heat never rises above 88 degrees, nor does it go below 
54 degrees Fahr. In very hot countries the potato does 
not thrive. With us the summers are too short and 
too hot for the potato to properly mature. From year 
to year we see it deteriorate and it is becoming more 
difficult to raise a good crop of potatoes. Unless a 
change for the better is soon found, where will this 
end? Even now hundreds and thousands of farmers 
have no potatoes for their own use. But not even the 
potato crop alone, but other crops also are diminishing, 
while the human family is increasing fast. What 
is to be done? Is there no remedy for this decrease 
of crop? Yes — and — No. By the old method, No. 
By the new, very easy. But, says the farmer, if our 
summers are too short and too hot, where is the remedy 
to come in ? We certainly cannot change the climate. 
Well, no; the Summer, the climate we cannot change. 
But we can, in fact we will have to adapt ourselves to 
the climate, as we find that the climate will not adapt 
itself to us, especially so with the potato crop. — Of 
late years it has become a custom to furnish teamsters 
in cities, who have to drive in the hot summer sun, 
with sun-protectors. In some cases these sun-protec- 
tors have reached even the farm districts, and why 



— 5 ~ 

should they not ? What a benefit good shade is. Of 
late even the horses in large cities are given sunfenders. 
But our question now is : How to defend the growing 
potato crop on the field against the sunstroke (blight 
and the scab). Shall we build a shed over them ? 
Certainly ! for they cannot withstand 118 to 122 degrees 
in the sun, we must therefore give them shade. Build 
a shed, says the farmer; what an idea ! Say, did you 
ever enjoy the shade of a tree on a hot, sharp, sunny 
day? Do you know how comfortable that feels, even 
more so than the shade in the house ? Therefore, what 
will we do; plant a tree over every potato stock? That 
is exactly what we will do, and we will get plenty of 
sound smooth potatoes. But we will first prepare the 
soil. 



— 6 — 



2.— How to Prepare the Soil, 



We will prepare the soil according to the best rules 
of science, as is very fully explained from page 1 to 
24 in the "Professor's Economical Secrets." We will 
plough and handle the soil in the Fall before, so as to 
destroy the weeds and vermin, and drain off all the 
surface water. In the Spring we will thoroughly mellow 
the ground with the cultivator and harrow if necessary. 
Now we will draw drills or seed furrows for corn, 2 — 3 
inches deep, and for potatoes 4 — 5 inches deep, taking 
care to get the drills (rows) very straight and of even 
width, 3 — 8J ft. apart, and wherever the lay of the soil 
and the shape of the field permits, the rows are to run 
east and west. Now we will plant every other row 
with potatoes, and lateF (at the proper time) in corn, 
the other row, but still better if two rows of corn 
to every one row of potatoes. 

By using the tall heavy leaved corn, such as Stow- 
ell's Evergreen sweet corn, etc., we will have the 
tree you wanted, 9 — 14 feet high, giving the potatoes 
the very best of shade during the great Summer heat, 
and crops of both potatoes and corn will be greatly in- 
creased. As I said before, the blight, the scab, and 
the rot are not diseases of the potato, but are caused 



by climatic action on the potato, too hot and too wet 
being the cause. Against the heat we give them the 
shade of the corn, and against the wet we drain the 
land properly so that not a drop of surface water will 
stand on the ground. Where no corn is wanted quite 
an advantage against the heat is gained by planting 
on lands sloping to the north. 

Where potatoes bring a good price, so as to pay 
for the extra labor, the following plan may be adopted: 
Let the rows run east and west and be wide apart, say 
3 — 3J feet apart, and in the rows the plants 9 — 12 
inches apart Now when the great summer heat comes 
we will run a plough between the rows throwing up a 
heavy furrow to the north, thus providing a kind of a 
ridge or protection on the south side of every row, and 
if this ridge is worked in very hot weather with an 
especially arranged cultivator or harrow to mellow and 
cool the ground, it will greatly benefit the potatoes. 
It is astonishing what can be accomplished when edu- 
cation and a determined will work hand in hand. 



8 — 



3— Selecting the Seed, 



When digging in the Fall, it is a good plan to 
select the best, largest, and smoothest tubers and keep 
them separate for seed next Spring, in a place, if 
possible, so cool that they will not sprout, and, of course, 
warm enough to guard against freezing. In the Spring 
two to six weeks (according to circumstances) before 
planting, bring the potatoes into a warm, light, airy 
room, spread them out thin so that the sprouts may 
start and may be as large as white beans, but they 
should be short and green. If they have started con- 
siderably, care must be taken not to break off the 
sprouts. If the seed-potatoes are large (as they should 
be) the seed-pieces will be cut so as to have but one 
eye (at most two) on each seed-piece, and the eye is to 
be at the upper end of the piece. Cut no fiat nor slab- 
shaped pieces, but with a very thin-bladed, sharp 
knife, cut in two cuts an oblong three-cornered piece 
with the eye at the upper end. If the potato has many 
small eyes at the seed end and no strong sprout started, 
cut a thin piece off and throw it away. 



4.— Spreading the Seed with Ashes. 



It is the custom with some, to spread the newly 
cut potatoes with ashes. If one is ready to plant im- 
mediately and the ground is dry, and the weather 
warm so as to promise an immediate start for the 
potatoes, the ashes seem to be very beneficial; but 
should the ground be wet and the weather cool, the 
ashes are too sharp for the potato and cause rot before 
there is a benefit to the young plant. 



5. — Rolling the Potato Seeds with Land-Plaster. 



Giving the newly cut potatoes a coating of land- 
plaster affords them better protection against rot in 
the ground before having time to germinate, and it 
is also believed that it promotes their growth. 



— 10 — 



6.— Planting. 



Lay the pieces 8, 10, 12, or 14 inches apart and 
very straight in the row. Cover by drawing over them 
the back of a harrow or other drag that will cover 
two rows at a time. As soon as they first begin 
to come through the ground, harrow them with a 
light and not sharp harrow, and thereafter cultivate as 
often as necessary. If thus planted, the ground 
properly prepared and handled with cultivator, there 
should be absolutely no hand labor except taking care 
of the potato-bugs. But in the shade of the corn the 
bugs will be far less numerous, as they like the sun and 
seem to dread the shade. (See "Professor's Economi- 
cal Secrets"). Should the season be hot and dry, 
frequent stirring of the soil with the cultivator, as long 
as the horse can walk through, will greatly benefit the 
potatoes, but care should be taken in the later part not 
to tear up the roots of the corn. — Plant early, so that 
the crop will be well along before the scorching sum- 
mer heat strikes them. 



— 11 — 



7.— Potato Digging. 



Should the soil be hot and wet, the potatoes should 
be dug as soon as they stop growing, and stored 
wherever they will lie cooler and drier than in the 
ground where they grew. 



8.— Guarantee. 



I guarantee that the above described methods will 
yield from double to ten times more crop, than that 
which is harvested by many the old way, as well in 
corn as potatoes, especially the latter. 



— 12 



7. — Remarks. 

When we look about us and see the most astonish- 
ing inventions made within the memory of men now 
living, the application of steam on land and water, 
the telegraph and telephone, electricity for light and 
motive power, the curative discoveries by Dr. Pasteur, 
Dr. Koch, and others for the benefit of Trade, Com- 
merce,. Science and Art, shouH we not reasonably 
expect that useful inventions would also be made in 
Economical Industries, in Farming? Why should 
farming go backward, while every other branch of 
science is going ahead at a galloping rate ? It should 
not, but it is! Farming is going backward. We do not 
raise as much crop per acre as formerly. Statistics 
from Washington show the past season's crops (1890) 
to be frightfully low: 

Gain crops 9 to 14 bushels per acre, 

Corn " 19 

Buckwheat crops 14 " '' ' 

Potato " 57 

Hay " 1 ton " and that 

is called "a big crop". Why so ? ! What is the 
cause ? ! There are many causes. The first and main 
cause is, a false notion which has taken root among our 
people. Since money has become over-plenty in our 
country, and since money instead of right and reason 



— 13 — 

rule supreme, there are many so short-sighted as to 
consider money the only object to aim at, and by 
misunderstanding the value and use of money not only 
burden their own lives, but the lives of others as well. 



10— Money. 



Money is a token of exchange; nothing more, 
nothing less. Money has absolutely no value within 
itself, no matter what it is made of — gold, silver, 
nickel, copper or paper; it only has value as we can 
get the necessities of life with it. A token, a sign, a 
mark of exchange, for food, clothing, — dwellings, etc. 
Here a remarkable example and proof. I have a 
brother who was sick at Atlanta, Georgia; he said to the 
Doctor: I would give $10 for a glass of water from a 
certain spring in Brown Co., Wis. The Doctor would 
not believe it. Oh, him of little faith, said the sick 
man ; had I seen it sparkle in a glass before me, I would 
have given $20 and likely $50 if I could not have had 
it for less. That of course is an extreme case, an excep- 
tion, but it proves what I am going to say, and what 
I said above. But now, let us look at our every day 
extreme cases. Why should those who perform the 
hardest and most useful labor receive the smallest, in 
many cases most miserable small pay, while those who 



— 14 — 

perform, comparatively speaking, no hard or useful 
labor at all, receive more pay— great pay — enormous 
pay. Think of the laborer in the white cotton fields 
geting from 30 to 50 cents per day, while the man in 
the White House gets — in cash and emolements — $150 
per day. Think of the man who works in the ditch 
for $1.00 a day; if he is late half an hour, a deduction 
of one-quarter of his pay is made. Now think of the 
man who draws $20, $25, $50 to $150 per day; when 
these men go fishing, or on other pleasure trips, not 
only do they draw full pay for so enjoying themselves, 
but we the people also pay their traveling expenses. 
He who labors hard gets nothing, he who does no 
labor gets it all ! 

Is that right? Is it right? Is it justice? Is it 
Democratic? Is it the principle of a Republic? Is it 
*'equal rights to all," of which we Americans boast so 
much? But how are you going to help it ? 



11.— Educate the People. 



When the farmer will no longer furnish the food 
of the nation at less than half pay for his labor, 
when the pay of the useful hard labor in every branch 
is raised to a reasonable level and the pay of the com- 
parative idlers (the easy work) is brought down to a 
reasonable level, then, and not till then, will we enjoy 
peace, harmony and plenty. 



— 15 — 

Yes, educate the people to first understand their 
own value, the value of others, the value of our dail'i; 
bread and the value of the tokens, signs and marks, 
wherewith, and for which, we exchange one commo- 
dity for another ! 

One of the greatest, yes, the very greatest, mistakes 
on earth is that regarding money — the value of money. 
Many make great exertions to get money for the pur- 
pose of having money, and consider themselves rich 
because they have money, enjoying neither healthy 
comfort, nor happiness, but watching with fear and 
trembling over their money, lest it be stolen or get 
away from them, all the while not knowing that money 
has no value (is much worse than worthless) until given 
out, paid from one to another, when it represents 
just what can be gotten for it, and no more! Another 
very great mistake is, that the more money there 
is in a country the more prosperous the people^ 
the better the prices for commodities and the higher 
the wages of the laboring people. That certainly 
should be, but is it? Exactly the reverse is the case. 
Proof of this is, that today, with largely more dollars in 
the United States than there were cents in 1840 to 1850 
(some say there are five times more dollars now than 
there were cents formerly) the farmer does not get as 
much money today for his beef cattle as he did then, 
and the laborer gets less than three times more wages» 
Think of that: 100 to 500 times more money in the 
country, and the farmer gets less for beef, pork, butter, 
eggs, etc., and the laborer only about double to three 



— 16 — 

times more ! If there were less money in the hands of 
the BIG (4) FOUR, they could certainly not control 
all of the meat markets of the United States, paying 
the farmer only IJ to 2 cents for fat beeves, and making 
their own price on meats, lard, etc., and compelling 
the butchers throughout the land to take meats from 
them. The same is true of all other combines; if they 
had not so much money they could not do it, could 
not crush the people of so powerful a nation as ours 
under foot, and the more money we have under the 
present system — the more will the people be crushed, 
and the people themselves furnish the power that 
■crushes them. 



12.— The Mill-Stone that Grinds the People. 



Bank Comptroller Lacey reports October 2, 1890, 
gross deposits $2,023,502,067. Over two billions of 
dollars on deposit; of course the banks loan this 
money out to combines— sharpers — who use it against 
the people, respectively, to make more gain, and as no 
•gain ever can come out of idlers who produce nothing, 
the people are the sufferers. But, cries out the money- 
power again, how are you going to help it ? I say 
again, by EDUCATING THE PEOPLE. 

Educate them to make better use of their money, 
use it themselves right and left for useful purposes, 



— 17 — 

improvements of every description, thereby keeping 
the money in circulation among the people instead of 
piling it up into the hands of combinations. In the 
one case it will do the public good, in the other harm. 
Educate the farmers to get more money by raising full 
crops by new methods which are much easier, as we 
kill the weeds and the vermin in advance and guard 
against drought and wet in advance, and then make 
use of the money on hand by keeping it on the move 
for useful improvements. One dollar passing ten 
hands one day represents $10, while that same dollar 
kept ten days represents just 10 cents per day. 

Example. — If we had two single dollars, one 
having the faculty of passing through ten hands every 
day, the other of passing from one -owner to another 
only once every ten days, the first would be worth to 
commerce just ninety -nine times more than the latter. 
Money must be circulated to be good — to be useful. 
Dead money is a good deal worse than no money. 

If people only knew that money is their servant, 
how eager would they be to keep that servant 
employed. It is well known that an idle servant 
brings no gain; why then will people let dollars lie 
idle for weeks — for months — for years — and so lose 
their services'? Ah; you never looked at it in that 
light ! All business-men look at the dollar in that 
light, why not the farmer? Should he make a labor 
slave of himself while his servant — the dollar — rests? 
Of course he should not, but only too often he does. 
Farmers often wonder why butchers get rich in a few 



— 18 — 

years. They take too much profit, says the farmer. 
That is not it; but they turn their money once every 
month and so take twelve profits a year, while some 
farmers keep their money twelve years without using 
it. Take that together with everything else that goes 
against the farmer, and then ask: Is it a wonder they 
are going backwards? Just as soon as the farmer 
works on the same principle as the merchant — uses 
his money as fast and as often as he can, makes use of 
every improvement bringing better crops — better 
profits, learns his trade as mechanics learn theirs — 
scientifically, raises more crop at less cost of money 
and labor, finds new crops to raise, both for family use 
and for market, learns to have a good family garden 
which is so very easy to have and which brings more 
clear profit for one acre than wheat-raising brings from 
ten acres, learns to raise and prepare for market flax, 
then his condition will change for the better. 

Speaking of flax, it is said by those who raise it 
to cost per acre the same as wheat to raise it, to give 
J20 worth of extra labor per acre, — or about $30 for 
raising and preparing — and to sell — the ready flax 
(lint) from $60 to $75, leaving a profit of from $30 to 
$45 per acre; it grows here in Wisconsin on any land 
where wheat will grow. For a complete description of 
the manner of cultivating and preparing flax for market, 
the profit on same, etc., see the "Professor's Economical 
Secrets", page 99 to 109 in the German book; it will 
also appear in the English later. 



i 



-^ 19 — 

Another very great and profitable improvement 
for the farmer is the Silo, fully described in the German 
book (will also appear in the second edition of the 
English); these, together with a great variety of new 
n:iethods that never before appeared in print in any 
other work, make the ''Professor's Secrets" most valuable 
to all people toiling for honest living. People who 
have read the Secrets and are working thereby pro- 
nounce them as TRUE IN EVERY WORD AND 
EVERY ARTICLE WORTH MORE TPIAN THE 
WHOLE COST. The price (which formerly was $5.00 
for a written letter) is now reduced to $3.00 for the first 
and second printed edition. All having bought the first 
at $3.00 will have the second mailed to them free. The 
two together now make a book of over 200 pages. The 
first edition of the English has 104 pages, has been out 
over two years and pleases greatly. 

Country Dealers can greatly increase their popu- 
larity and trade by giving every customer one of these 
little books (full potato crops) as a present. I will 
make them so cheap that the increased trade will 
greatly outbalance the cost. 



— 20 — 

Price. 

The Climatic Potato Secrets, $1.00. 

'^ " " '• two copies, $1.50. 

The Professor's Econoiuical Secrete, New Methods 
of Farminsj or The Science of Raising Larger Crops at 
Less Expense (English or Ghsrnian): 

First part, - - - $2.00. 

Second part, - - - 2.00. 

Both together, - - - 3.00. 

(Second part of the English to follow later). 



How to send money. 



By Postal Money Order, Postal Note, or Registered 
Letter, or Bank Check, or Express Money Order. 

Be very careful to write address fully and plainly. 
Always give the name of your Post Office and State, as 
well at the beginning as at the end of your letter. It 
is also well to have your address printed, stamped or 
written on outside. 

Address all orders, with price enclosed, to 

JOHN PLATTEN, Universal Farmer, 
Fort Howard, Wis. 

P. S. Very liberal reductions made to Farmers' 
Alliances, Dealers and Canvassers, and especially to 
Merchants offering the books to their customers as 
premiums. Address as above, with return postage 
enclosed. Circulars will be furnished. 

Agents wanted everywhere. 



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WHAT YOU 
CAN RAISE 

\ IF YOU H NOW 
HOW, 



"In the fat of the Earth 
And in the d«w of Hea^ ftu 
Shall thy bleating be." 



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